Cigarette package case



April 14, 1942. F, w. BRYANT CIGARETTE PACKAGE CASE 7 Filed 001:. 21, 1938 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 IN VEN TQR: wax/War Mama/W;

CIGARETTE PACKAGE CASE :Filed. Oct. 21, 1938 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Patented Apr. 14, 1942 UHTED s; or ies 1 Claim.

The invention has for an object to provide a novel form of ever-open coverless cigarette case adapted to receive the standard retail cigarette package of today, and to hold the same frictionally with the contents also compressed sufiiciently to retain the cigarettes therein against accidental discharge after the package is opened at on end.

To this end my invention takes advantage of the resilient and compressible quality of a package of cigarettes to enable it to be pushed into a case which is substantially a tapered rectangular sleeve smaller than the package in transverse dimension at its lower part, so that the inner end portion of the package is wedged and compressed therein. In consequence, after the opposite end of the package has been opened, the cigarettes will be so compressed against the walls of the package and against each other, and frictionally bound against the wall surfaces of the package as to be retained in the package and case without requiring a retaining closure for the case.

The case may be made of various materials, but it is an aim of the invention to enable it to be made of simple paper stock as well as in metal or plastics.

It is also an object to present such a case from which the empty package coverings may be manually extracted with great ease.

A further object is to present such a case which ment, and combination of parts involved in the embodiment of the invention, as will appear from the following description and accompanying drawings presenting an example of the invention,

although various changes may be made in the shape and proportions of the article, as .well as modifications in constructional details, without departing from the spirit of the invention as set forth in the appended claim.

In the drawings,

Figure l is a side elevation of a case constructed in accordance with my invention.

Figure 2 is an edge elevation thereof with a portion broken away to show an engaged and contained cigarette retail package of standard size, of which a portion is shown in section with the content in elevation.

Figure 3 is a top view of the case.

Figure 4 is a perspective view of the case and a package of cigarettes, partly engaged therein.

Figure 5 is a plan of the blank for the article as it might be produced in sheet metal.

Figure 6 is a bottom view of the article in a modified form.

Figure 7 is a perspective view of a preferred arrangement of the foot piece and the manner of use of such a package. A

There is illustrated a case ill, adapted to be produced in sheet metal although it may be made of various other materials as may be found desirable. The case is substantially in the form of a tube, rectangular in cross section, consisting of front and back walls H and I2, which in the present instance are perfect rectangles, and connecting side walls l3 and M, the latter being trapezoids of lesser dimensions at their bottom parts than at their top parts; the case thus bounding a space having the form of a frustrum of a triangular prism or wedge, in which the front and back walls converge toward their lower ends slightly. All of these walls are made horizontally continuous, and may be produced integrally complete by extrusion, after the manner of forming metal boxes, or may be made up from one or more blanks of flat sheet stock, bent to proper form and meeting edges united by welding or otherwise.

Figure 5 illustrates the forming of all four walls from a single blank in which the areas for the walls l3, ll, I4 and I2 are formed in the order named, edge to edge from one end of the blank to the other, and the blank then bent on the lines [5 defining the mutual boundaries of the abutting walls, until the extremities of the blank are brought edge to edge, where they may be secured together, by welding, or solder, or otherwise; completing the body of the case.

On the lower edges of the walls I! and I2 of Figures 1 to 5, foot pieces or flanges [6 are integrally formed as projections from the lower edge portions of these walls, there being two shown on each wall, spaced apart suitably so that when bent inward at right angles to the respective walls to which they are attached, they are 0pposed to and stop short of, the similar flanges on the opposite wall of the case, as shown in Figure 3, and afford a finger opening I1, through which the finger of the user may be inserted to push a cigarette package or wrapping out of the case, a will be understood.

The foot pieces l6 serve as stops for a cigarette package when inserted in the upper end of the case and thrust longitudinally downward to the foot pieces.

The case is made of a depth approximately coextensive with the length of a standard cigarette retail package or pack, as now generally produced by the principal cigarette manufacturers, and the front and back Walls H and I2 are approximately of the same form and area as corresponding sides of such standard cigarette retail package.

The difference in width of the top and bottom of each side wall [3 and I4 is approximately onequarter of an inch, and the width of the top portions of these walls is approximately the same as that of the corresponding edge surfaces of a standard cigarette package. As a result, the upper open end of the case is of sufiicient size to receive freely and slidably the inserted end of a standard retail cigarette package commonly called a pack of cigarettes.

In the use of the article as described, a pack of cigarettes I8 having been purchased, the

smoker tears ofi or otherwise removes all or a portion of the wrapping l9 at one end of the package, so that the ends of all the cigarettes 20 are exposed through the open end of the package, after which the closed end 2| of such package is inserted in the open end of the case l0, and with the palm of the hand pressed downward in the case until the end of the package is close to or against thefoot pieces or stops it. In so doing the lower end of the package is compressed so that the cigarettes are pinched 7 ones only have been removed, as the contents of the package are used at the edge. More of the wrapping may be removed as required, to

permit ready access to the contents of the pack. i.

If desired, a single foot piece for the case may be provided as shown in Figure 6, which is a bottom view of a modification I ll of the case wherein the front and back walls and the side walls ll, l2, l3, and M the same form and relation as the corresponding parts of the first described case, but in place of the foot pieces 16 a single foot piece 22 is formed on the lower edge of the wall H between the sides l3 and I4, leaving two 5 openings 23, on at each side, through which respective fingers of the user may be inserted against the end of a cigarette package wrapping to force the same out of the case, This foot piece projects to the opposite side of the case,

are of i to which it may be attached, if desired. This foot piece 22 need not b centered, but may be otherwise located.

As shown in Figure 7, a foot piece or stop flange 24 is formed on one of the walls of the case so that when the case is formed the flange 24 extends from one of the trapezoid walls half or more, or less, of the width of the package toward the opposite trapezoid wall, leaving an opening 25 through the bottom of the case next to the last mentioned trapezoid wall, through which the thumb or other finger of a user may be thrust after a pack has been positioned, to push out one or several of the cigarettes immediately next the proximal trapezoid wall as shown in the drawings. In this operation the usual soft sheet material of the pack wrapper is bulged inward, and if more than the cigarette or cigarettes required are thrust out, they may be returned by the pressure of a finger.

When the foot flange covers one half of the bottom of th case, it has the advantage that after a pack has been opened at one side, opposite the open bottom of the case, and the user has pushed a number of cigarettes out of the opened pack by pressing his finger through the opening in the bottom of the case, the pack may be withdrawn and inverted as shown in Figure '7, and reinserted in the case with the open side of the pack next th closed side of the case bottom, so that the pack is securely closed against accidental loss of cigarettes if they have becomeloosened in the pack.

Various other changes and modifications of form and structure may be made without departing from the spirit of the invention as now more particularly claimed hereinafter, and I do not regard the invention as limited to the specific form and proportions of the article illustrated which is purely exemplary.

I claim:

A cigarette case consisting of a tubular body open at both ends, tapered toward one end constructed and adapted to receive freely in its larger end a standard cigarette pack but of materially less transverse dimension in at least one direction than such pack at its smaller end, a stop plate fixed on the case and extending across the smaller end of the case so as to close the space between the front and back walls from one side wall to a distance, stopping short of the opposite side wall a distance to form a fingerreceiving opening, whereby the finger of the user may be pushed through the opening against a pack in the case to eject cigarettes from the pack'when open at the same side on the distant end, and whereby such pack may be withdrawn, reversed and inserted so that said plate will close the open side of the pack.

FREDERICK W. BRYANT. 

